An April letter from state officials indicated the community lost out in part because the firefighters union opposed the merge and “would be a barrier to overcome.”

Chris Reynolds, the union president and one of 14 firefighters expected to lose a job on July 1, released an email statement this week in response to the failed grant application.

“Proponents of the (merged police and firefighter) model are looking for someone to blame so naturally those who oppose the idea must be to blame,” the statement reads. “But that couldn’t be further from the truth. By now, to anyone who’s been paying attention, our opposition to the PSO model isn’t a secret. And it isn’t the reason Bay City lost out on this grant.”

Reynolds wrote that Snyder’s grant program is aimed at rewarding municipal efficiencies, and in Bay City’s case, the fund “would have been used to create the efficiency.

“Those who applied for the grant were putting the cart before the horse since negotiations for creating the Public Safety Department are still ongoing,” read Reynolds' statement. “The state is not going to dole out nearly $500,000 to a municipality that hasn’t yet done the work to get to promised savings.”

The merger would put 12 cross-trained police officers on the streets beginning July 1 while another 21 police officers would join the hybrid officers by 2014.

Reynolds has said he hopes negotiations between the city and firefighters — whose current contract also expires July 1 — will create a new deal that avoids layoffs.

Other opponents of the merger argue the hybrid model doesn’t work. The union furthered that opinion in his statement this week.

“… Another reason the grant was denied is that the Public Safety Department model has been proven to be unsuccessful at cutting costs,” the statement reads. “In fact, such departments often end up costing municipalities even more than maintaining separate police and fire departments. At the same time, the combining of police and fire departments results in greatly diminished fire service for the community, putting lives and property at risk.

“The Governor’s Office knows that the Public Safety Department model simply does not work. Grants are being denied in other municipalities across the state for the same reasons that this grant was denied in Bay City — the promised savings don’t come through in the end and the level of fire service falls to dangerously low levels that are simply unacceptable.”

Reynolds wrote that Bay City may have earned the state grant if City Hall agreed to a collaborative fire response system with bordering communities.

City leaders have argued such a system wouldn’t have saved enough money annually.